Lonie Paxton

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Lonie Paxton

Date of birth	March 13, 1978
Place of birth	Orange, California
Position(s)	Long snapper
College	Sacramento State
Statistics	DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
2000--present	New England Patriots

Leonidas E. Paxton III born March 13, 1978 in Orange, California) is an American football long snapper for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. He has helped the Patriots win 3 Super Bowls. Paxton is the oldest of 6 (he has 2 brothers and 3 foster brothers and sisters). He has worked with the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento, California.

1 High school career
2 College career
3 National Football League Career
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] High school career

At Centennial High School in Corona, California, Paxton was a three-year starter as a two-way lineman and longsnapper. As a senior, he was selected as the team's Lineman of the Year. When Paxton was a child growing up in southern California, he and his father would attend LA Rams, where his father, a retired construction worker and football fan, had season tickets and it just so happens that their seats were right next to where the long snappers would practice during the game. Lonie heeded his father's advice while growing up to work on all facets of his game. When he reached high school, he earned his team's long snapping position and has excelled at the position ever since.

[edit] College career

At Sacramento State, Lonie Paxton was a four-year starter as a longsnapper, and an offensive lineman. As a junior, he was part of an offensive line that blocked for the NCAA Division I-AA rushing leader. As a senior, he helped his team lead the Big Sky Conference in rushing yards per game with 234.2 rushing yards per game. He majored in communications at Sacramento State, where he played for the Hornets as Long Snapper, Offensive Line and Guard. He earned Rookie of the Year honors as a freshman, junior of the year and lineman of the year as a senior. Paxton was signed by the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent on April 19, 2000. He has played both offensive and defensive starter for three seasons.

[edit] National Football League Career

Paxton has snapped on nine of Adam Vinatieri’s game winning field goals over the past four seasons, including his game-winning 48-yarder at the end of Super Bowl XXXVI. He made snow angels fashionable after Adam Vinatieri kicked the 23-yard field goal in overtime that gave the Patriots a 16-13 victory over Oakland Raiders which put them in the 2001 AFC championship game. While all of New England danced in delirium, Paxton lay down in the end zone on the powdered snow and made a snow angel, like a little kid who just discovered school was canceled for the day, flapping his tattooed arms up and down. Afterwards he told reporters he promised his family he would. He repeated his victory snow angel on the Louisiana Superdome turf after Vinatieri's kick beat the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

In 2003, Lonie established the Active Force Foundation[1], a non-profit organization that designs and donates special sports equipment to physically challenged athletes.

2000 - New England Patriots:Snapped on every punt, PAT, and field goal.
2001 - New England Patriots:Snapped every 16 regular season games, and the three postseason games. Made one special teams tackle on the coverage unit.

[edit] Trivia

Favorite football team growing up were the LA Rams
Football heroes as a kid: Kevin Greene and Jackie Slater
Most admired living people are his mother and father
Dedicated the first Super Bowl win to his father
He is half Greek on his father's side[2]
Dream car is a Monster Truck
Favorite movie Pulp Fiction, music Pennywise and Slightly Stoopid
He enjoy's wakeboarding, snowboarding, fishing, cars, dirt bikes and surfing
Favorite food Scooby Snacks and Carne Asada
Craziest ambition is to be an x-games athlete or a rock star
Pre-game superstitions/rituals are: listening to the same loud punk music and getting to the field 2 1/2 hours early to stretch